advance

14 January 2010

Thanks for everyone’s nice comments – much appreciated. I would have preferred not to mention it on here, but I think you’d notice. Less photos, for one thing. But I feel like all that’s happening around here is Animal Death, All The Time. I’m a bit sick of my pets dying, to be frank. STOP IT. STEP AWAY FROM THE LIGHT. Anyway, the two remaining cats are both hale and healthy (although Ginger Cat keeps being sick on the carpet, very loudly might I add, please STOP THAT TOO) and so I’ve got a New Year’s resolution: No Death Posts in 2010! Catchy, I think. Feel free to follow it yourself.

As well as all your condolences, we received many more – I think I alluded to the fact my dog has something of a Presence in his breed. He was a stud dog, the duties of which he performed admirably, indeed one might say eagerly. And so over time he had puppies and lo, they were good and bred from in their turn. (I feel all biblical over here. Verily.) (And it wasn’t us doing the breeding and such-like, by the way; we were his pet home, meaning he lived a life of sloth with us and occasionally we would get a phonecall requesting him for Stud Duty.) So his face and personality is well known in the small community of Brown Dog Owners, and upon his death we received multiple phonecalls and texts and literally dozens of emails of condolence. One of those emails, a few days ago, was from a woman we once knew well, and who knew Brown Dog well. She now breeds Brown Dogs, currently has a litter of puppies (unusual in itself, as there would only be about 3 litters a year in Australia) and wanted to offer one of the pups to us. We have been talking it over. We have checked out their backgrounds. We go to see the pups on Saturday.

A new pup will not replace our Brown Dog, and I didn’t want one of his offspring (the comparisons would be very unfair on any new dog). Our discussions have not been whether to get another dog – that is a given. Mostly they’ve been about whether to get a Brown Dog, or a Black Dog. I miss my Black Dog hugely, but for various reasons we think another Brown Dog is the right thing at this time. So… Saturday. We’ll see.